August

 August began with a new chapter for our family.

After several weeks of searching, and applying for different additions to our family.....the boys and I drove and met this sweet fella:

Meet Ramses.

He's a 3-5ish year old Beagle that (probably) had been someones pet at some point but wound up at a local shelter.

He does have double cherry eye which will need surgery to correct.

Brutus was thrilled to welcome him home.

A few days later, Keenan headed to the mountains for a preseason XC training camp with part of his team.

Can't believe Senior Year is about to kick off.

The dogs continued to settle in,

and loved having Kieran around for a few more days.

Keenan enjoyed a foggy morning at Grandfather Mountain with his team before I picked him up early for a college prep boot camp at school.

And then the all important Senior parking space painting.

He was so happy that Kieran was still home & able to come by.

Finished product looks good-he was going for an album cover vibe.

And the nickname is one a favorite teacher bestowed on him freshman year.

With the dogs getting settled, our house quickly became a whirling dervish of wrestle-mania, WWE smack down.

So fun.

Then-poof-Kieran loaded his car on a Monday to head back & help with Freshman move-in.

And the start of his Senior year.

Then that Wednesday, this kid kicked off his Senior year in High School.

And I had a mini-meltdown.

These two were not sure what happened & not thrilled by the sudden turn of events.

But they were thrilled to welcome Keenan back home after XC practice.

One of our good friends snapped this while they were up at Cedarville moving their son in for his freshman year.  These two have been friends since Kieran was in high school, glad they will have another year together at CU.

Kieran was put on the Welcome "hype" team.

Doesn't he look thrilled?

The dogs and I tried to settle into our new routines.

And thankfully for day 2 of Freshman move in, Kieran got assigned unloading at a girls dorm.

He was happy to have the manual labor but was shocked at how much more a female brings to school.

Ha.

Our apples this year have been hit hard by birds, bugs, and deer.

We harvested what we could and Keenan and I made a South Tyrolean apple streudel like what we enjoyed in the Italian Dolomites.

He made the crust & I assembled the filling.

Delicious & pretty close to what we enjoyed.

The first Cross Country meet came on quick.

Looking forward to a fun, final season.

For Keenan, and us too.

We got Ramses double cherry eye surgery scheduled for the beginning of September.

And tried to prep these two that recovery would mean a cone of shame and no wrestling during recovery.

Keenan and one of his pals got matched with their K-Pal.

It's a great mentoring program the school does by pairing Seniors with Kindergarten students for the entire year.

Not sure who was more excited about College Football returning-us or the dogs.

Brutus was thrilled with OSU....

Ramses had to wait until September to watch the Heels play.